Helicopter crash kills two Marines in Afghanistan

LAURA KINGAssociated Press

Published Monday, January 21, 2002

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan -- A U.S. military helicopter on a resupply mission crashed in high mountain terrain Sunday, killing two of the seven Marines on board and injuring the rest, a military spokesman said.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said there was no evidence the CH-53E Super Stallion came under enemy fire.

"It appears to be, at the moment, a mechanical problem with the helicopter," Rumsfeld said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Your heart just breaks every time something like this happens."

The Pentagon said in a statement injuries to the five surviving Marines were moderate. Earlier reports said two of the survivors were critically hurt.

Since the injuries weren't as bad as initially feared, the injured have been evacuated to a medical facility "within the Afghanistan theater of operations" rather than to a U.S. facility in Germany, one defense official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The helicopter left Bagram Air Base north of Kabul, the Afghan capital, on a resupply mission with another helicopter and later made a "hard landing" about 40 miles to the south, Army Capt. Tom Bryant said, citing a Marine statement.

"The site was quickly secured," Bryant said. "We quickly got medical personnel and others on the ground, got them evacuated back here. We have a robust medical treatment capability here."

Bryant would not say which U.S. forces were being resupplied. Small units of Special Forces have been scouring the country for leaders of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network -- blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington -- and the deposed Taliban regime that supported them.

At the U.S. military base in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, Marine spokesman 1st Lt. James Jarvis said the identities of those involved would not be released until their families were notified.

"It is too early to tell the cause of the accident," Jarvis said.

The crash occurred at about 8 a.m. local time at an altitude of between 7,000 and 9,000 feet. Rescuers were able to land next to the site, speeding up the evacuation of the injured, Jarvis said.

"Our hearts and prayers go out" to the families, he said.

The worst single casualty toll for U.S. forces in the Afghanistan campaign came Jan. 9, when all seven Marines aboard a refueling tanker were killed in a fiery crash near Shamsi air base in remote southwestern Pakistan.

The cause of that crash remains under investigation, though Marines said there was no sign of hostile ground fire.

The only other fatal crash of a U.S. military aircraft during the war occurred Oct. 19, when an Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Pakistan, killing two Army Rangers.

An American soldier was killed in an ambush in eastern Afghanistan earlier this month, and a Central Intelligence Agency operative died during an uprising by al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif in November.